The Mystery in the Meat
The Mystery in the Meat is the tenth episode of the ninth season of Bones. Synopsis The Jeffersonian team investigates the murder of a food scientist whose remains were tossed in a meat grinder and mixed into cans of stew served in a school cafeteria. When the team uncovers the scientist's newest - and highly lucrative - food invention, they begin to track the trail of jealous competitors in the multi-million dollar food industry. Meanwhile, Angela plans a post-wedding bachelorette party for Brennan and it gets crazier than intended. Summary The Scene of the Crime: A high school bully confiscates a bowl of beef stew in the cafeteria, but when he takes a bite, he finds a human tooth. Another spoonful provides an eyeball. He begins to scream, informing other students of his discovery and across the cafeteria, other students react similarly as they also begin to find assorted human parts, including a toe and an ear. Booth, Brennan, and Cam arrive to the high school and quickly ascertain that the human remains are split up into several cans of beef stew. B&B follow up at the processing plant, where the research and development director, Susan, tells them they’ve collected the remaining cans of stew from the batch. They are shipped to the Jeffersonian. The Victim: Howard Compton, a food scientist who worked at the company that provided the cans of stew. He was killed, thrown into the meat processor, and then canned. Primary Suspects: * Susan, the R&D employee — Because of Howard’s great success with food products, he is poised to swoop in and get a promotion in Susan’s department. She admits she and Howard didn’t get along, but insists that she didn’t kill him. * Howard’s research peer — Booth and Brennan question her in the lab. She has an acute sense of smell and basically pinpoints Howard’s death from Brennan’s presence. She is rational and lacks frivolity of any kind. She posits that Howard was working on something much bigger and got killed over it. * Howard’s boss — Sweets questions him, particularly on whether or not Susan is a likely suspect. He says she’s more than likely innocent. * Raymond McCants — a creative food supplier who sent Howard threatening emails when Howard fell behind on some deadlines. His “Hot Bacon” edible lubrication was to be a big success. * Evelyn Cheevers — a local chemical-free farm representative. She admits to slashing Howard’s tires and being somewhat aggressive with him, but she insists she didn’t kill him. The Case Progression: Booth and Caroline question Susan and suggest motive, but her alibi checks out. In the lab, Oliver finds some partial remodeling on the finger injuries and Sweets and Booth discuss how Howard thought he was being followed. The attacks seemed to intensify. Strong emails, then slashed tires, then physical assault/death. Sweets brings Raymond in for questioning. He insists that he didn’t kill Howard. Daisy and Oliver find a stabbing mark on the clavicle, and Brennan later identifies the weapon as a meat injector. Hodgins finds some flower particles in the slashed tire, and the serrations on the cut lead Angela to suggest a Japanese garden knife. When two bank accounts in Howard’s name point to Evelyn and she has the garden knives for sale, she quickly moves up the suspect list. She tells Booth and Caroline that Howard was funding her research, but that he couldn’t quit his job because (in his words) there was someone he had to expose from the inside. He wouldn’t tell her who it was, considering it safer if she didn’t know. Booth then speaks with Howard’s lab associate. She insists she would never do something so rash as commit murder and suggests that he figure out who might do that. At the lab, Angela, Wells and Daisy show Brennan a recreation of the death, leading Brennan to realise the murderer would have been drenched in blood. She also points out a piece of horse bone in the skeletal remains — the canned stew was made of horse and human. Howard knew it was happening and threatened to sue the company. The Verdict: Booth and Brennan bring the company executive back in for questioning and accuse him of selling horse meat to schools. He says it was a quality issue. Booth shows him records of him working with a meat plant in Mexico. The boss said they sold beef, but Brennan points out that they only sold horse meat. They have a warrant to check his hair, and when Brennan sheds her light on it, there are traces of blood spattering. Cast Main Cast *Temperance Brennan - Emily Deschanel *Seeley Booth - David Boreanaz *Jack Hodgins - T.J Thyne *Angela Montenegro - Michaela Conlin *Camille Saroyan - Tamara Taylor *Lance Sweets - John Francis Daley Intern(s) of the Week *Daisy Wick - Carla Gallo *Dr. Oliver Wells - Brian Klugman Guest Cast *Caroline Julian - Patricia Belcher *Sam Gilford - John Posey *Susan Lauderbach - Alyson Reed *Agatha Blume - Jen Drohan *Biker's Girlfriend - Lesley Aletter *Raymond McCants - Rizwan Manji *Biker - Paul Zies *Evelyn Cheevers - Jodi Harris *Trevor Fowley - Conor Patrick Brown *Brandon Heller - Kenny Ridwan *Lunch Lady - Donna Pieroni Featured Music * "Find My Way" by Max Boogie Overdrive Gallery Bones ep908 sc10 0011.jpg Bones ep908 sc10 0315.jpg Bones ep908 sc20 0155.jpg Bones ep908 sc23 0021.jpg Bones ep908 sc3 0013.jpg Bones ep908 sc3 0049.jpg Bones ep908 sc3 0424.jpg Video Gallery Trivia Susan Lauderbach, a research scientist played by Alyson Reed. Alyson Reed was the lead singer/dancer in the 1985 movie 'A Chorus Line'. Category:Season 9 Category:Episodes